America's top colleges and universities should institute an admissions preference for low-income students because such students – even when they are high-achievers academically – now face unjustified barriers and make up a mere 3 percent of enrollment at the elite schools, according to a landmark report issued today by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.

The Cooke Foundation found that such a "poverty preference" for admissions to selective higher education institutions, akin to existing preferences for athletes and the children of alumni, would create a more level playing field for disadvantaged students.